Live out your princess Belle fantasies with a trip to these European locations that inspired both Beauty & the Beast films.
Before I begin with my rankings, let me acknowledge that this post is purely subjective. Each of us have unique tastes and different experiences. The following ranking is based on my own personal experiences and preferences after having visited all six Disney Resorts around the world.
On our recent trip aboard the Disney Wonder, we learned a few lessons that we’ll definitely be implementing on all future Disney Cruises. These lessons are outlined below and separated into sections based on category (Know Before You Go, Items to Pack, Day of Departure, and While Aboard).
I am a notorious over-packer... for everything. I never know what I'll need and I hate being too hot or too cold. When it comes to Disneyland I've been known to operate the same way. If I know I'm going to be in the park all day I'm usually lugging along a backpack stuffed to the brim. Sometimes this works, sometimes it's just downright annoying. So I've made it a goal over the past couple months to see how light I can go and it's become a pretty fun challenge.
It's time for another edition of "what would you do if you only had one day in a Disney theme park?"! Today's post covers how I would attack Hong Kong Disneyland Resort if I only had one day to do it.
Hong Kong Disneyland is one of the most MAGICAL parks in the world and I had the BEST experience here. I visited the park from Nov. 17-19 and it was the perfect time of year (IMO). It was about 60-70 degrees and the crowds were pretty reasonable (even with it being a weekend and Mickey’s 90th birthday).
As I hinted at in my Asia Trip Recap blog post, I definitely ran into some hiccups during my recent trip to all of the Disney theme parks in Asia. What I didn’t say is that the biggest hiccups came from my day at Shanghai Disney Resort. Just writing this down is making me wish I could go back in time and literally do this ENTIRE day differently. The only reason I’m sharing my experience at all is so other people can avoid the same pitfalls I encountered. And I’d also like to say that I had a completely different experience my first time visiting back in 2016, which you can read about here. But first let me start back at the beginning…
The wait is over! It’s been a little over a month and I’ve finally had the time to gather my thoughts and organize my photos so that I can give everyone a proper update on my recent travels. (I bet you thought this day would never come… LOL). In late November I spent two weeks park-hopping and city-exploring across Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Japan and wanted to provide a few general thoughts as well as an overview of my itinerary to catch everyone up-to-speed. This will be a no-holds-back blog entry full of my honest thoughts and suggestions (no matter how unpopular they may be). My goal is to provide another point of view along with some helpful hints as you plan your own upcoming vacations!
One of my favorite things to do is to plan "the perfect day" for my friends and family when we go to Disneyland. Since I bought my annual pass in 2015, I've been going to Disneyland about two times a month. I've tested out all different theories and countless "itineraries". What I've discovered is that most of the common tips are true. If you want the quickest wait times for the most popular rides, be there at rope drop (when Disney Cast Members officially drop the rope at entrances to the parks). If you want to hit up popular rides mid-day make sure you get a Fastpass for that ride (or expect to wait an hour +). If you want to eat at the most popular sit-downs, make a reservation in advance. Most of these are pretty intuitive. What's not as intuitive are what those most "popular" rides/eats/shows are at that particular time.
I feel like we’ve hit the jackpot with the food at Disney California Adventure. The food is spectacular and I regularly crave more than one item there. Again, there is still SO much I haven’t gotten to eat but what I have eaten is to die for.